Vengeance Demon Hunter Talents

This section of the Vengeance Demon Hunter guide provides an overview of all talents, information on which talents work well in different situations, and popular builds in Wowhead's talent calculator. This guide is written by Munkky. Updated for the latest patch.

Level 104: Fraktur is for ST DPS and for "Advanced Healing" (the all purpose talent), Den Dämon füttern for Smoother Damage Reduction/AoE DPS with Fallout/Razor Spikes, Seelenreißer for dungeons where you want more healing.

NOTE: These are simply cookie cutter builds, and they will vary based on bosses/dungeons/affixes/player preference/group comp/etc.

Talent Overview

Tier 1

Abyssischer Schlag: Abyssal Strike provides 2 extra Infernal Strike per minute. This means that you will have 5 total casts per minute of Infernoeinschlag. This provides a large mobility boost if it is required for certain bosses due to the extended range and the 12 second cooldown on Infernoeinschlag. As for dps it is viable with Flammenschlag for AoE. Meaning M+ or multi target encounters where they will be alive most of the time. This competes with Klingenstacheln for dps, and for those who do not maximize the effectiveness of Klingenstacheln but can manage Infernal Strike, this will be better.

Peinigende Flammen: This talent increases the damage done by Feuerbrandaura by 20%, as well as increasing your movement speed by 30% while it's active. This can be used for the movement speed, however it is weaker than both other choices for dps in most cases. In Dungeons this can be competitive depending on how you pull. This makes it more of a preference.

Klingenstacheln: In order to maximize damage from this ability, it is best to pool your pain before casting Dämonenstachel. What this means is to get as close to 100 pain without capping as possible. Ideally you would hit 100 pain and press Dämonenstachel, then follow up with a Fraktur spam for ST, or Seelenspalter into 3 Abscheren then Seelenspalter for AoE. In order to maximize the amount of physical damage abilities you pump into the enemy during this time. Ideally you would want to cast your non physical abilities outside of this 6 second window. You can still use Infernoeinschlag as it is off the global cooldown.

While not actively tanking, i.e. the other tank has the boss. You would still do the same. How you use this ability offensively strongly relies on your ability as a player as well as on a per fight basis in conjunction with your group. There isn’t a 100% always right way, as it will fluctuate based on your situation.

Tier 2

Festmahl der Seelen: This talent causes your Soul Cleave to additionally apply a healing over time effect on you, providing a consistent source of healing between casts. This talent is very underwhelming healing wise. In the current meta of Fracture, it isn't usable in raid unless you go for a non fracture build. In dungeons you're going to take one of the other choices. It has good synergy with Klingenparade, which gives this almost 100% uptime on AoE.

Kollateralschaden: This talent causes each damage instance of the initial damage from Immolation Aura to have a chance to shatter soul fragments. What this means is that it has a chance to proc PER target. You can generate a max of 5 souls with this ability, and it goes past the 5 soul cap. As opposed to Festmahl der Seelen, this causes much spikier healing, removing the consistent healing between Seelenspalters that Feast of Souls offers, but making each Seelenspalter heal for significantly more in bursts. This has great synergy with Peinbringer and also works well in conjunction with Den Dämon füttern , Seelenbombe and Seelenbarriere for soul generation in Dungeons. Which is pretty much a must have when using any of the three in dungeons. This is the dps talent of choice on this row.

Tier 3

Teufelsklinge: This grants a new ability, Teufelsklinge. It is a single target charge that can be used up to 15 yards away, generating 20 pain. Each cast of Abscheren has a chance to reset this cooldown. Teufelsklinge is the best for learning and for survivability due to the pain generation it provides. The charge is nice, however it is more of a niche use due to Infernoeinschlag.

Fraktur: This adds a new ability, costing 30 pain, that deals damage to the current target as well as shattering two soul fragments from them. It has benefits in survivability, as souls are auto consumed when you go over the 5 cap, so you can continuously cast Fracture for trickle healing from souls and constant Painbringer uptime. Due to the soul management, this will be the more "Advanced Survivability" talent choice. As for DPS this is the one best dps abilities for us, and even more so when used with Klingenstacheln.

Seelenreißer: This talent causes Metamorphose to grant 50% leech, increasing the value of the cooldown. 50% leech is not insignificant, and will provide a good amount of healing for its duration, especially on AoE. Due to Metamorphose receiving a buff, this talent isn't nearly as strong compared to the other talents and will see most of it's use in M+. This effects Metamorphose, Verzweiflungstat, and Von Schmerz getrieben.

Tier 5

Konzentrierte Zeichen: This talent will increase your AoE DPS, synergizing very well with Flammenschlag. On the other hand, it will remove some possible utility by removing the ability to target sigils.

Zeichen der Ketten:This talent gives the Zeichen der Ketten ability. This is an AoE grip to the center of the targeting circle. It is useful for grouping up ranged and caster mobs. The grip also cancels whatever cast the enemy may be doing.

Tier 6

Dämonische Verwüstung: This is an ability that has a cooldown of one minute and costs 30 pain. It deals some damage in a frontal cone AoE, as well as providing large amounts of healing.

Klingenparade:This talent increases the all pain generated. It has potential to be good for survival on hard hitting boss encounters, so as to fuel your Fractures and Soul Cleaves. However in general, Spirit Bomb will be better

Seelenbombe: This is the best option at the moment. This consumes all souls around you and explodese for 8 yards around you. Applying Frailty, a 20% leech type effect, (this doesn't actually give or effect leech) to those targets. This provides the highest consistent healing of this tier as well as the highest overall. This counts as consuming souls, so you will get the healing, Fueled by Pain procs, and Painbringer stacks from it.

Tier 7

Verzweiflungstat: A strong choice for progression content. It can save wipes and save a battle res. You can use it to avoid a mechanic if needed. Outside of progression raiding this will not see much use. Once every 8 minutes, instead of taking fatal damage, this will heal you to 30% HP instead and activate Metamorphose. It does not stack with Metamorphose, it simply refreshes the duration of Metamorphose if this procs during Meta. Von Schmerz getrieben however does add 5 seconds too the timer instead of a full refresh. With how hard higher end M+ can hit, this is still a strong choice incase you need an extra cooldown, as Soul Barrier will get eaten alive, and Demonic Infusion doesn't sync super well with Dungeons.

Dämonische Infusion: Gives you 3 total charges of Dämonenstachel, 1 buff on cast and refilling your charges, meaning that you need to cast one immediately to ensure maximum uptime. This will be the DPS choice in this row, in conjunction with Klingenstacheln. This can also be used for Physical Damage intensive fights, such as Ursoc, or in general if you want more Demon Spikes uptime.

Seelenbarriere: Will be the best for Magic intensive fights. You can use this in conjunction with Fraktur, Seelenschnitzer and Kollateralschaden to build souls with one beforehand, cast Seelenbarriere, then build souls with a secondary ability. I.e. build with Fraktur, Seelenbarriere, then cast Seelenschnitzer and Feuerbrandaura (with Kollateralschaden on AoE),for maximum effectiveness on the souls. Due to the minimum absorb shield this provides, it is very effective vs DoTs as well as multiple targets hitting you for lower values, i.e. in low level M+. Also it is worth noting that this has doesn’t change anything with souls, they still provide healing and buffs, you are just consuming them a different way and are getting a shield on top of that.